Lancer the answer, says Mitsubishi

MITSUBISHI Motors Australia Limited boss Robert McEniry has revealed that it will not offer a medium-sized passenger car in the foreseeable future.

Instead, MMAL has elected to concentrate on a Lancer-based blanket small-car coverage that will soon include a diesel and a smaller compact SUV/crossover spin-off.

In fact, for the time being, the Lancer will remain the largest sedan that MMAL offers.



“There is no official planning (for a larger passenger car) at the moment,” Mr McEniry said.



“But there is clearly an opportunity, and you have seen a concept car already (Mitsubishi Concept-ZT at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show), so clearly there are thoughts in peoples’ minds that see an opportunity sitting in that area.



“And if you look at where the market is going, to have a premium car sitting above the Lancer – sort of (Honda) Accord-sized or whatever – that would be a fantastic product range.

“(But) that’s too far out at the moment. We have other priorities… and we’ll wait and see what happens there.”Mr McEniry’s comments underscores European reports stating that the Mitsubishi Motors Corporation has recently cancelled plans to put the Concept-ZT four-door sedan into production.

MMC previewed the Concept-ZT at Tokyo last year to gauge reaction, and was proposing to slot the vehicle between the Lancer and the US-made Galant that formed the basis for MMAL’s unsuccessful 380 Magna replacement.

Nevertheless, we understand that MMC has not abandoned plans for a Honda Accord Euro-sized sedan range altogether.

At the Paris motor show last month, Mitsubishi Motors Europe (MME) CEO Tim Tozer told GoAuto that plans are afoot to eventually add a ‘D’ segment (Ford Mondeo) sized vehicle pending “… a business case that works”, but it “…will be years…” before such a vehicle sees the light of day.

In the meantime, MMAL will continue to increase the number of Lancer and Lancer-based derivations, as it seeks to fill a number of passenger-car gaps in the Australian line-up.



Left: Mitsubishi ZT concept.

Since the CJ Lancer 2.0-litre petrol sedan was launched in the latter half of 2007, it has been joined by the high-performance Evolution-X sedan, a 2.4-litre engine option, the Subaru Impreza WRX-rivalling Ralliart, and the all-important Sportback – the five-door CJ Lancer hatch version which effectively re-exposes MMAL to at least 50 per cent of small-car buyers that would not have considered the sedan version.

MMAL has also launched a ‘luxury’ version of the CJ Lancer sedan called Aspire, which MMAL product chief Chris Maxsted said has already brought in many enquires from current and former Magna owners looking to downsize without losing large-car luxury features.



“Our dealers have had a lot of interest in the Aspire.



“Our own Magna buyers are coming in to look at this car, as well as buyers of the Mazda 6 and Ford Mondeo,” he added.

The unrelenting Lancer rollout continues next year with turbo-diesel models (which will also eventually include SST dual-clutch gearbox variants), while the compact SUV-cum-crossover will arrive sometime in 2010.

MMAL has had to wait for the appropriate diesel/transmission package to become available on both Outlander and Lancer, as MME prioritised development for the manual package, according to Mr McEniry.



“Often (diesels) are developed for European markets, and Europe has a high interest in manuals and we don’t,” he explained.



“And we want an automatic, so therefore it is a matter of timing for us to go for automatic, because if we decided to go with manual-only for these products – and we still may have to for one or two of them – then people will say: ‘What the hell are you doing that for? This market (prefers) automatic.’”Diesel is also likely for the new compact SUV/crossover, which will be a production version of the Concept-cX show car that debuted alongside the Concept-ZT at Tokyo last year.

Known internally at MMC as the ‘B-Plus’ smaller crossover, it will slot underneath the existing Outlander, which – despite also being officially classed as a compact SUV – spills into the medium SUV territory because of its length and subsequent seven-seat availability.

Of course, both the upcoming crossover and Outlander share the same ‘Project Global’ small-car architecture that spawned the CJ Lancer.

This platform also serves a range of Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles for Chrysler LLC, brokered under the 2000 arrangement when both parties were part of the of DaimlerChrysler AG umbrella.

Read more:

First drive: Lancer undergoes a Ralliart attack

Sydney show: Lancer’s hatch dispatch

Mitsu ZT still alive

ZT still hits the spot

Mitsubishi 380's demise opens door for ZT